CB
Carol Bruce
Actor
Died October 9, 2007 (87 years)
Carol Bruce was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress. Bruce began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band, and later sang with Ben Bernie's orchestra in 1940-1941. Bruce made her Broadway debut in Louisiana Purchase, with songs by Irving Berlin, who discovered her at a nightclub in Newark, New Jersey. She was the first actress to play the role of Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat since the 1932 Broadway revival. Bruce played the role onstage in 1946 and garnered favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the role onstage in 1927 and repeated it in both the 1932 revival and the 1936 film. Bruce appeared with Abbott and Costello in Keep 'Em Flying (1941). Her first serious film role was in This Woman Is Mine (1941). She had supporting roles many years later in the films American Gigolo (1980) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. After a long career as a singer and in films, Bruce is probably best-remembered for her recurring role as the domineering and meddlesome Lillian "Mama" Carlson (mother of the station manager played by Gordon Jump) on CBS' WKRP in Cincinnati.
Filmography
| 1997 | Pacific Palisades (TV Series) · as Mrs. Fitzpatrick |
| 1996 | The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists · as Old One (voice) |
| 1996 | Profiler (TV Series) |
| 1995 | Live Shot (TV Series) · as Shirley |
| 1994 | Party of Five (TV Series) · as Sarah's Grandmother |
| 1993 | Diagnosis Murder (TV Series) · as Constance Lockwood |
| 1991 | The New WKRP in Cincinnati (TV Series) |
| 1990 | Equal Justice (TV Series) · as Mrs. Thomason |
| 1989 | Doogie Howser, M.D. (TV Series) |
| 1987 | Planes, Trains & Automobiles · as Joy Page |
| 1987 | Jake and the Fatman (TV Series) |
| 1987 | Hooperman (TV Series) · as Cast |
| 1987 | Marblehead Manor (TV Series) · as Margaret Stonehill |
| 1987 | Rags to Riches (TV Series) · as Cast |
| 1986 | Our House (TV Series) · as Mrs. Findley |
| 1986 | Perfect Strangers (TV Series) · as Margaret |
| 1985 | The Twilight Zone (1985) (TV Series) |
| 1985 | The Golden Girls (TV Series) · as Lucille |
| 1980 | Too Close for Comfort (TV Series) · as Sally Ruth |
| 1980 | American Gigolo · as Mrs. Sloan |
| 1979 | Knots Landing (TV Series) · as Mrs. Cunningham |
| 1978 | Diff'rent Strokes (TV Series) · as Miss Gilbert |
| 1978 | WKRP in Cincinnati (TV Series) · as Mama Carlson |
| 1976 | Charlie's Angels (TV Series) · as Mrs. Pattison |
| 1969 | The Girl Who Returned · as (voice) |
| 1963 | General Hospital (TV Series) · as Jennifer Talbot |
| 1960 | The Witness (TV Series) · as Mildred Hall |
| 1951 | Love of Life (TV Series) · as Amanda Randolph |
| 1950 | The Armstrong Circle Theatre (TV Series) · as Hurricane Diane |
| 1948 | Studio One (TV Series) |
| 1942 | Behind the Eight Ball · as Joan Barry |
| 1941 | Keep 'Em Flying · as Linda Joyce |
| 1941 | This Woman Is Mine · as Julie Morgan |